SBS To Host New Music Survival Program “Super Match”

Most people had low hopes of seeing another music survival program given the rather lacklustre response that was seen with “I’m A Singer Season2″ near the end of that program’s shelf life. But it appears that SBS is going to take a gamble and take another stab at the concept with a new music survival program called “Super Match” set to air in August 2013.

The tentatively named “Super Match” program will be SBS’s attempt at trying to get that mythical “music survival programs are hugely popular” lighting to strike twice after the dismal ratings of MBC’s I’m A Singer Season 2″ and KBS’s under performing “Immortal Song 2.”

The current confirmed cast list is a pretty interesting and varied list with senior singers like folk legend Yang Hee Eun, singer and full time figurine collector Lee Seung Hwan, along with music survival program veterans rock band YB (most of the reports just list Yoon Do Hyun but I highly doubt he would not bring the rest of his band along), Bobby Kim, and Kim Tae Woo. This cast is also complemented by some younger singers such as Lim Kim, 2NE1‘s CL, and Dynamic Duo. In total, there will be five senior artists and five junior artist supposedly teaming up together (presumably in pairs) where they then compete as a team in performances reminiscent of “I”m A Singer.”

How will “Super Match” actually differ from its peers? First, they will not have any eliminations akin to “I’m A Singer,” but will instead lean more towards the voting system deployed in “Immortal Song 2.” Also just like” Immortal Song 2,” it will be pre-recorded rather than run live like “I’m A Singer.” The main PD, Park Seung Min, is also a music show veteran having previously manned SBS’s “Inkigayo.”

It will be interesting to see if “Super Match” can revive the popularity of music survival programs and address some of the issues that were apparent in “I’m A Singer,” like voting bias towards singers that naturally hit higher notes than others, approachability for younger singers (“I’m A Singer” had issues with integration and acceptance of younger singers in its line up), and overall public fatigue for shows of this nature.

Also it will be interesting to see where in SBS’s weekly schedule this program will fit into. Given the shows premise, it will presumably be a weekend program, and I speculate that it could be likely that we will see SBS’s drastically under performing “Barefoot Friends” being replaced by “Super Match” if the response from the pilot program is positive.

The program is set to record two episodes worth of content starting on July 25 and is expected to air as a summer special sometime in the middle of August.